Telework amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: effects on work style reform in Japan

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-09-2020-0390
• Published date: 03 July 2021
• Date: 03 July 2021
• Pages: 1059-1071
• Subject Matter: Strategy,Corporate governance
• Author: Masahiro Hosoda

Telework amidst the COVID-19 pandemic:

effects on work style reform in Japan

Masahiro Hosoda

Abstract

Purpose –This study aims to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected telework initiatives in

Japanese companies and investigate the factors that affect telework based on the technology,

organizationand environment (TOE) model, throughthe analysis of published documents.

Design/methodology/approach –Document analysis was adopted. Documents were collected from

English news articles in the Nikkei Asian Review and Nikkei Asia which cover Japan’s economy,

industries and markets. The results of surveys by the Persol Research Institute and Tokyo Chamber of

Commerce and Industry were also provided to discuss factors promoting and hindering telework.

Contentanalysis was adopted to analyse the documents.

Findings –COVID-19had an unavoidable impact on the implementation of teleworkthat the government

had previouslyfailed to instigate. Japanese listedcompanies tend to implement telework, whereassmall-

and medium-sized companies are struggling. The ratio of telework has been low even after the

declaration of the state of emergency because there exist organizational, technological and

environmentalbarriers to telework in Japan.

Originality/value –This study contributes to discussions on work style reform by focusing on the

impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on telework. This research also gives new insight into

operationalizationof telework in organizations not only in Japan but also in other countriesknown for low

rates of teleworkand inflexible work styles such as Korea.

Keywords Telework, Japanese management, COVID-19, Work style reform

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Since 2018, the Japanese Government has been promoting “work stylereform”, which “is at

the heart of Japan’s corporate culture, and is rooted in the lifestyles of Japanese people

and Japan’s way of thinking in regard to work” (Prime Minister’s Office of Japan, 2017,

p. 2). Against this background, long working hours and inflexible work style should be

improved to enhance worklife balance, labour participation (especially assisting women

and senior citizens to find and obtain work) and productivity (Kobayashi et al.,2018;Prime

Minister’s Office of Japan, 2017). The promotion of telework has been extremely important

as one of the initiatives to realize work style reform in Japan (Prime Minister’s Office of

Japan, 2017).

Telework is defined as “the useof information and communications technologies (ICT),such

as smartphones, tablets, laptops and/or desktop computers, for work that is performed

outside the employer’s premises” (Eurofound and the International Labour Office, 2017,

p. 3). In other words, “telework implies work achieved with the help of ICTs and conducted

outside the employer’s locations” (Belzunegui-Eraso and Erro-Garce

´s, 2020,p.2).By

adopting telework, organizations can allow workers to work from several places such as

home, shared facilities, customer sites or via any platform that has the required

technologies (Belzunegui-Eraso and Erro-Garce

´s, 2020).

Masahiro Hosoda is based

at the College of Business,

Rikkyo University, Tokyo,

Japan.

Received 10 September 2020

Revised 6 January 2021

25 March 2021

11 April 2021

Accepted 22 April 2021

DOI 10.1108/CG-09-2020-0390 VOL. 21 NO. 6 2021, pp. 1059-1071, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1472-0701 jCORPORATE GOVERNANCE jPAGE 1059